Items16The creator’s order
  1. 1Martin MargielaMartin MargielaMaison Martin Margiela, Spring/Summer 1990: the playground show, Paris, October 1989 The anti-spectacle that changed what a show venue could be. Instead of a grand salon, Margiela took his collection to a rundown playground on the edge of Paris's 20th arrondissement and let the neighborhood in.…0
  2. 2Alexander McQueenAlexander McQueenAlexander McQueen, Spring/Summer 1999 "No. 13", London, September 1998 Proof that a bare set can host the biggest moment. The runway, conceived by Joseph Bennett, was pared-down, unvarnished wood, leaving all the attention for the finale: model Shalom Harlow between two industrial robots as they…0
  3. 3Hussein ChalayanHussein ChalayanHussein Chalayan, Fall/Winter 2000 "Afterwords", London, February 2000 The set was the collection. At the end of the runway sat a small living room: four chairs under gray slipcovers, a low coffee table, a television beyond. Near the close, four models pulled off the covers and wore them as…0
  4. 4Voss (collection)Voss (collection)Alexander McQueen, Spring/Summer 2001, London, September 2000 McQueen turned the audience into part of the set. Guests faced an enormous clinical glass box walled with surveillance mirrors and spent the wait staring at their own reflections to the pulse of a heartbeat. When the light inside the…0
  5. 5The Widows of CullodenThe Widows of CullodenAlexander McQueen, Fall/Winter 2006, Paris, March 2006 The show is remembered for its last minute. The runway was a square of rough wood around a large glass pyramid at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, and for the finale a life-sized, ghostly Kate Moss appeared inside the pyramid in a…0
  6. 6FendiFendiFendi on the Great Wall of China, October 2007 The location show taken to its limit. Karl Lagerfeld's Fendi sent 88 models down a raised platform built along a restored section of the Great Wall for a sunset show near Beijing. The set design was mostly restraint: a long catwalk that let the…0
  7. 7Louis VuittonLouis VuittonLouis Vuitton, Fall/Winter 2012, Paris, March 2012 Marc Jacobs had a steam train pull into the Louvre. A steam-spewing locomotive rolled along tracks laid in the museum's Cour Carrée, and each model stepped down trailed by a valet carrying Louis Vuitton hat boxes and vanity cases. The genius is…0
  8. 8DiorDiorChristian Dior Haute Couture, Fall/Winter 2012, Paris, July 2012 Raf Simons's debut at Dior, staged in a Paris mansion whose salons were covered wall to wall in fresh flowers. The 54 looks moved from room to room through solid walls of multicolored blooms, a nod to Christian Dior's own obsession…0
  9. 9ChanelChanelChanel, Fall/Winter 2014, Paris, March 2014 Karl Lagerfeld turned the Grand Palais into a supermarket. Endless aisles were stocked with Chanel-branded pasta, cheeses, sauces and detergents, and models pushed brightly colored shopping carts past the shelves. Lagerfeld called the supermarket "the…0
  10. 10GucciGucciGucci, Fall/Winter 2018 "Gucci Cyborg", Milan, February 2018 Alessandro Michele built an operating theater and let the runway circle it, with operating-room lights, real surgical tables under surgical sheets, and rows of wipe-clean waiting-room seats for the guests. Some models carried lifelike…0